I’m finding the medical advice quite vague on the different pros and cons of birthing methods and would really love to hear what helped other mums to have their best birth. I’m currently pregnant with #2 and considering hypnobirth and/or water birth.
For a bit of background my first birth was a traumatic disaster. I laboured for 30 hours with undetected broken waters, was induced after 17 hours when bub had no fluid left and we lost her heart rate a number of times. Was then given a spinal block and prepped for emergency cesarean however I managed to give birth vaginally although forceps assisted. I lost 2L of blood, needed transfusions and was on IV antibiotics for 5 days. I am quite a small woman but my bub was small as well. I wanted to do it drug free however I felt like after one intervention happened it caused a cascade of interventions.
I’d like to birth in a hospital but just feel so traumatised by how my first birth panned out. Google doesn’t really help with recommendations and my midwives just say “choose whatever method feels right for you.”
I’d really like to hear from people who found better ways to birth after a traumatic birth and hopefully find some mental and/or physical techniques to become really relaxed and powerful. I felt so powerful giving birth until I began fearing for my baby, and I feel like it all fell apart after that.
Any advice appreciated. x
5 Replies
My cesarean was the most relaxing and easiest experience. Rocked up to hospital and 60 mins later was holding my baby in recovery
I’m pregnant with my fourth and am going down the hypnobirthing route this time. I used to think it was all hippy shit but it’s actually really helpful especially after a traumatic experience. I’ve had epidurals before and two of my three births were good but the last one has scarred me, this time the hypnobirthing has helped me to feel more in control of how things go
I had a traumatic birth. If I was going to do it again I’d go with a hypno birth in a hospital.
I love the idea of a home birth but when they go wrong, it takes a long time to get to the help your baby needs. Babies go into distress even without interventions (like in my case), it takes 20 minutes to get to the hospital, time to be assessed by the emergency department, time to get to the operating theatre etc etc. it’s quite a long process while your baby is in distress.
So hypnobirth in a hospital would be my choice because you are still where you need to be if things don’t go to plan.
They have heaps of Facebook groups you could join, both for hypnobirthing and traumatic previous labour’s, they might help.
Either way, embrace your decision and own it for what it is. You deserve to be content in your decision whatever it may be
My best birthing experience i spent the last 10 weeks in hospital on bed rest. My first was born still birth, my second was fear and all the wrong choices. Lots of loses in between. But my favourite was my last pregancy, despite 10 weeks in hospital. I had a student midwife with me she was so calm and brilliant , we wrote a little birth plan up, opened my mind to "mindfulness" , i had soothing classical music playing, despite constant monitoring, i was able to just zen with no drugs and it actually was almost not painful throught mindful thinking.